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Alleged rape of abortion patients…Court ordered Medical Council to grant Dr Sahadeo a hearing

Jan 18, 2012 News

 

-embattled physician claims he’s retired, but “wants to clear his name”

The High Court has ordered the Medical Council of Guyana to grant embattled physician Dr. Rama Sahadeo a hearing into claims that he raped two women who went to his clinic for abortions.
Kaieteur News was told that the decision was made in late November 2011 by Justice Dawn Gregory, who ruled that the Council had to conduct the hearing first before Sahadeo could be suspended.
However, a source said that the physician’s name will remain off the list of registered physicians pending the outcome of the investigation. The court had also denied Sahadeo’s application for damages against the Medical Council.
In a letter and brief comments to Kaieteur News, the 68-year-old Sahadeo denied that he had applied to the Council to resume practice.
“Let me state categorically that I never made any such application. I am retired and therefore the entire thrust of your article is false and misleading.”
And in a brief telephone interview, Sahadeo said “I just want to clear my name.”
However, this newspaper was told that Sahadeo wrote to the Council in April, 2010, informing its members that he was in Guyana and would like to attend Continuing Medical Education (CME). He had reportedly also applied for his licence to practice.
Members of the Council met last week Thursday to decide on the way forward with the Sahadeo case.
In April 1997, a 25-year-old patient alleged that Sahadeo raped her when she visited his Thomas Street, North Cummingsburg clinic to have an abortion. The woman alleged that she was given an anesthetic which left her helpless to defend herself.
Sahadeo, 54 at the time, was charged with rape on June 3, 1997, but left the country on the very day that he was scheduled to appear in court. This prompted former Chief Magistrate K. Juman-Yassin to issue a warrant for his arrest.
An attorney representing Dr Sahadeo later submitted a medical certificate for the accused explaining his absence.
The charge against Dr Sahadeo was later dropped after the patient indicated that she no longer wanted to testify.
Dr Sahadeo was also charged and acquitted in 1987 for the alleged rape of a 22-year-old housewife who had visited his clinic for an abortion. She, too, had alleged that the abuse occurred after she was given an anesthetic. The woman and her husband had filed a complaint to then Minister of Health Noel Blackman and to the Commissioner of Police.
In the midst of the 1997 rape investigation, two other women made similar claims of sexual misconduct against Dr Sahadeo to the Medical Council of Guyana and to Help and Shelter. Both women claimed to be former patients, and alleged that the molestation occurred in 1976 and 1987 respectively, when they visited the physician’s clinic to have abortions.
One alleged that she was 17 at the time.
The women claimed that they kept their ordeals to themselves due to embarrassment, but eventually came forward after realizing that they were not the only victims.
Testimony was given in September 1997 before Medical Council Chairman Dr. Walter Chin, (now deceased); Guyana Medical Association President Dr. Max Hanoman; and leading gynaecologist Dr. M.Y. Bacchus (also deceased).
However, Dr Sahadeo, who was reportedly still overseas, never appeared before the Council to defend himself, and the Council suspended him from working here, pending the outcome of the hearing.
The statements the alleged victims gave to the Medical Council in 1997 were among documents that were destroyed in fire that razed the Ministry of Health head office in Brickdam.
Officials from Health and Shelter had interviewed and counseled the women and still have copies of their statements.

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